Alaska Airlines, which has been making inroads into the Hawaii market since initiating service in December 2007, is adding Oakland to its list of destination cities.

The Seattle-based carrier will inaugurate service between Oakland and Kahului four times a week beginning Nov. 9 and three times a week between Oakland and Kona starting Nov. 10.

In addition, Alaska said it will expand its Seattle-Honolulu service from one daily flight to two beginning July 2, and advance the start of its Portland-Maui service to July 3 from Aug. 7.

The addition of Oakland gives another boost to the San Francisco Bay Area city that suffered a double whammy around April 1 of last year when Aloha and ATA airlines, which both flew between Oakland and Honolulu, ceased operations within days of each other.

Hawaiian Airlines picked up the slack on May 1, 2008, when it initiated daily service between Honolulu and Oakland.

Alaska will now have 59 flights a week to the four major islands with the addition of the Oakland flights. The airline is offering introductory one-way fares of $169 for flights between Oakland and Maui, Oakland and Kona, and Portland and Maui for tickets purchased by May 21.

“;Hawaii has become a major market for Alaska Airlines in just a short time, thanks to the loyalty of our customers and the great service provided by our employees,”; said Steve Jarvis, vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience.

Separately, Alaska said it will inaugurate nonstop daily service between Seattle and Houston beginning Sept. 23 and between Seattle and Atlanta starting Oct. 23.

“;We are shifting capacity into markets where we are seeing higher demand,”; said Andrew Harrison, Alaska's vice president of planning and revenue management.